Online report of the Progressive Review. For 51 years, the news while there's still time to do something about it.

December 19, 2012

Assault weapons: just a few facts

NBC,Bay Area - From 1982 to 1994, prior to the advent of the [assault weapon] ban,
the U.S. averaged 1.5 such shootings a year, resulting in the death or
injury of roughly 25 people.

Once the assault weapons ban went
into effect in 1994, the frequency of the mass shootings remained stable
at 1.6, while the average number of casualties dropped to 21 a year.

When the ban expired, however, a substantial rise in violence and death ensued. From 2005 to the present day, there
has been an average of 3.4 mass shootings a year, resulting in 56 deaths
from those incidents.

Correlation, Sam. That's correlation, not causation. Our world has worsened in other ways in that time, so BOTH the elimination of the ban AND the rise in shootings can more plausibly attributed to that worsening than to one another.

SAY IT AGAIN, SAM

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

Your editor has been a musician for many decades. He started the first band his Quaker school ever had and played drums with bands up until 1980 when he switched to stride piano. He had his own band until the mid-1990s and has played with the New Sunshine Jazz Band, Hill City Jazz Band, Not So Modern Jazz Band and the Phoenix Jazz Band.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review for 49 years, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start six organizations (including the DC Humanities Council, the national Green Party and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.MORE